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Advanced
How To Guide
Formulating an IT/eBusiness strategy for SMEs
3.04
Selecting the right Degree of Integration
When a company has a fully integrated IT system,
any piece of information, such as a new order or a change
in a customer's address only has to be keyed in once.
It can be keyed in by any staff member, from any department,
who has computer access. Thereafter, any other staff
member will automatically see the updated version of
the information next time they look up that particular
piece of data.
Typically however, SMEs have a number of computer systems
that are not fully integrated. Accounts Due, Despatch,
Sales and Service Departments might, for example, all
keep separate lists of the same customers' addresses.
A customer could tell the Sales Department that their
address had changed, but this might not lead to the
updating of the other department's databases. As a result,
the product and the subsequent invoice might be sent
to the old address. In due course, a service engineer
might also travel out to the wrong address. These problems
could be overcome by having paper-based systems to ensure
prompt manual updating of each computer systems every
time relevant information was received. Such systems
are generally not fully reliable, they absorb staff
time and they increase the chances of errors in the
updated information. Hence, all other things being equal,
a fully integrated system is the most desirable option.
Indeed, there is a general trend towards increasing
levels of integration, both within organisations and,
by Internet enabled links between organisations. However,
full integration, though becoming easier, can be costly
and cumbersome to set up and manage. For many companies
a system that falls short of the technical ideal of
full integration still makes the most business sense.
However, any short-term investment should, in so far
as possible, be designed to facilitate, or at least
not impede, a future move towards greater integration.
A decision not to opt for a fully integrated solution
does not necessarily imply that all data transfer between
the systems should involve manual re-keying. Compromise
solutions are possible. These might, for example, involve
some human intervention to ensure that the different
computer systems cross-reference and update files every
night. These compromise solutions are acceptable if
they do not interfere with the daily operations such
as backups and the company accepts that that certain
information may be out of date for a considerable period
of time until the update has been completed. If the
latter is unacceptable, the company may need to examine
real time integration of systems and the extra overhead
that entails.
Decisions have to be made about which systems to integrate
and the degree and method of integration. Factors that
would tend to make full integration desirable include
a need to transfer high volumes of information between
systems, a need for very up to date information and/or
serious consequences from having inaccurate information.
Cost/technical problems are often the reason for deciding
to keep certain systems separate. While the technical
experts can advise on these decisions, ultimately, as
with many other aspects of IT, business people are likely
to be faced with a decision on how much technical sophistication
they want or can afford to pay for.
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